What exactly is digital automation? I see it as the simplification of manual tasks that have been optimized in the digital world to the point where they require the least amount of effort to successfully do what they are required to do in the real world. We adopt digital technologies everywhere else in our lives, so it should be a natural progression to do so more fully in PCB design.
A good example of digital automation that comes to mind is something as simple as using an app on your cellphone to scan in a business card for collecting contact data information, and then collating this data digitally and providing a usable output. Another prosaic example is using a GPS to provide directions interactively to efficiently get you from point A to point B in the least amount of time. When you go to a restaurant and use your phone to place your order to quickly get a hot meal served to your table, most of this process flowed through the digital world. Think about all the items and processes that can now be tracked and optimized, and how these captured metrics can be used to increase efficiency and lower cost. Now, we all know PCB design is not quite that simple, but the concept of digital automation is basically the same. So, how do we leverage digital automation?
When it comes to leveraging digital automation in PCB design in today’s industry, designing faster, better, and cheaper are critical imperatives in the face of several factors that challenge most engineering teams—ranging from addressing the law of physics in today’s complex designs, the reduction of project budgets and resources, and coming out of the dark cloud of COVID-19. Over these last two years, we adapted to the new virtual work environment, working with remote team members as each of us were basically in our respective physical isolation. Yet, many in the industry also had to adapt to functioning in multiple domains and collaborating and integrating with multiple disciplines in the quest for success. We have evolved in this digital world, and many have started leveraging digital automation.
Here are just a few examples of leveraging digital automation regarding printed circuit engineering:
Digital automation for productivity and efficiency is the sought-after utopia of the PCB design and manufacturing processes. Today’s electronic design automation tools are better suited and more capable than ever in arming engineering teams with tighter integrations, system model-based engineering, and verification automation to achieve this ideal approach in the never-ending quest to attain the highest level of repeated success from one design or project to another. Yet engineering teams continue to face complex challenges internally within their ecosystems and externally to their companies.
With the geopolitical and economic turmoil headlining the news today, combined with the slow recovery from this pandemic, supply chain disruptions continue and intensify the challenges for project teams to design their products while struggling to evolve internal legacy processes and dated methodologies to get to market as fast as possible. Engineering teams must now implement supply-chain resilience at the point of design.
Like many others in the industry, I have embraced our new working environment and have not let it stop me from evolving my skill set as a printed circuit engineer to include designing for supply-chain resilience as well as mastering my CAD tool. Yes, like so many others, roughly two years in physical isolation has me extremely eager to get back out there. Surfing threads on LinkedIn and YouTube, where anyone can easily find educational PCB design content, has gotten to a point of information overload due to the amount of content out there. Viewing content in the virtual world is not quite the same as physically attending an industry conference in person, where in-person, face-to-face interactions and collaboration amplify the potential for success.
I spent an entire week in Santa Clara, California, attending PCB West in October. Oh my gosh, it was crazy awesome. The excitement and buzz of those who attended, presented and or showcased on the show floor was the highest I have ever seen in in my lengthy career attending this conference. It was obvious that people were anxious and eager to get back to in-person interaction and collaboration. Everyone gathered in groups and talked about printed circuit engineering in one form or another. I was finally back in my element, and I know the feeling was mutual for so many others. We all had that same feeling of euphoria.
Among the many discussions I had at the conference, one recurring topic was automation. The gap between the old and the new generations of PCB designers continues to grow, and lack of education and training opportunities within the industry has caused a significant shortage of experienced and talented PCB designers. Those of us who have been around for more than 10 years and still have a lengthy runway in our career in PCB design have a great future ahead of us. Yet, as I see the pool of young EEs entering the PCB design ranks with a mindset shaped by growing up in the digital age, I am delighted to see that a digital virtual existence, automation, and optimization seem to come naturally to them. I have a good feeling for the up-and-coming printed circuit engineers, and I am confident that the industry will be in good hands.
In my PCB West presentation, “PCB Design Best Practices,” I addressed my pillars of best practices. These are:
In this two-hour session, I explained that leveraging digital automation throughout each pillar increases the potential for overall success while reducing design cycle time. This increases multi-discipline collaborations and multi-domain integrations, and reduces project cost and risks. I shared my experiences in how leveraging digital automation allowed me and my teammates to achieve success faster than legacy methods and approaches to PCB design.
I was surprised to hear that many others agreed with me regarding the adoption and leverage of digital automation. We know we should take advantage of it, and we wonder why more in the industry are not doing so at a faster rate. For one reason or another, implementing and leveraging digital automation always seems to run into resistance in one form or another. Whether it’s with implementing tool automation, process optimizations, or multi-discipline collaboration, digital automation has not been fully accepted and implemented.
Below are several typical rationales for not implementing and leveraging digital automation:
I can attest to all these perspectives firsthand as I have progressed in my career on many diverse, global engineering teams, spanning every market sector: commercial, aerospace, military, and medical.
Not every step in the design process can be automated, but we should always be on the lookout for opportunities to leverage digital automation when and where we can. There are many areas that can take advantage of and leverage digital automation, from multi-discipline collaboration, such as analog, digital, RF, and ME, to multi-domain integration, such as electrical, mechanical, systems, software, manufacturing, verification, and producibility. Today’s engineering tools are ripe for this.
If you can reduce your design cycle time by the slightest percentage and get to market that much faster, isn’t it worth it? I strongly believe it is. Time is money. Getting your product to market the fastest, with the best quality, the least amount of cost and risk, and within the shortest potential schedule can make all the difference. Believe me, leveraging digital automation in printed circuit engineering makes a difference.
In the coming months, I’ll be discussing the five pillars of best practices in PCB design in detail in a podcast series. I’ll also be sharing my opinions from my career experiences on the diverse topics of printed circuit engineering on my social media channels.
References
This column originally appeared in the November 2022 issue of Design007 Magazine.
Additional content from Siemens Digital Industries Software:
12-05-2022
What exactly is digital automation? I see it as the simplification of manual tasks that have been optimized in the digital world to a point where they require the least amount of effort to successfully do what they are required to do in the real world. We adopt digital technologies everywhere else in our lives, so it should be a natural progression to do so more fully in PCB design.
View Story10-11-2022
In our series of digital transformation columns, we’ve hit on several highly relevant topics that electronic systems design companies face today, including a look at supply chain resilience as a challenge and an opportunity and then optimizing multi-domain co-design. This column, by Matthew Walsh, takes up another important new development: establishing component digital threads. The positive impacts on systems design companies and the electronics ecosystem will be revolutionary.
View Story09-29-2022
Higher system speeds have necessitated consideration of signal propagation delay and quality not just within electronics, but through wire harnesses. Tighter form factors have minimized the typical “board in a box,” where a simple rectangular board had enough clearance that there were rarely problems. Rigid/flex circuits often stress cross-domain ECAD/MCAD design with their multiple stack-ups and bendability. And even if form/fit is achieved, high-performance systems with significant heat dissipation need to ensure adequate air/fluid flow through the structure, David Wiens explains.
View Story07-20-2022
In part one of this two-part series on supply chain resilience, we addressed “the problem” being witnessed throughout the electronics industry regarding supply chain disruptions and their negative effects. These impacts spotlight a worldwide vulnerability that has been brewing beneath the surface, quietly growing for many years, and which was further magnified by the global pandemic. Today, supply chain issues are daily headlines and, in one way or another, professionally or personally, we’re all experiencing the negative consequences of these disruptions. The geo-political turmoil arising from the war between Russia and Ukraine presents the latest twist to the supply chain plot.
View Story06-14-2022
In part one of this two-part article series on supply chain resilience, I’ll first address the problem being witnessed throughout the industry regarding supply chain disruptions and its negative effects. For over two years now, supply chain issues have headlined the news, identifying a worldwide vulnerability magnified by the global pandemic. This vulnerability had been problematic way before the pandemic, quietly growing, ignored until the pandemic hit with full force. Then, this sleeping dog raised its ugly head and now worries today’s headlines. From our local grocery and department stores to our local auto dealerships, empty shelves and empty car lots have been the negative effect of sporadic supplies causing serious consequences and disruptions as we struggle to emerge from this pandemic.
View Story05-24-2022
If you’ve been keeping up with the electronics trade news, you’re probably aware that there is a slow but steady growth of ICs now being implemented in 2.5D or 3D IC configurations. Over the last decade, these device configurations have been steadily growing in popularity in highest-capacity FPGAs, high-bandwidth memory devices, and processors targeting high-performance computing and datacenters. But with Apple’s recent announcement of M1 Ultra—which will power its new generation of desktop and laptop computers—the age of 3D IC is quickly coming upon us and may become the norm rather than the exception. So, it behooves us to ask, what if any impact will this have on PCB systems design?
View Story04-21-2022
Previously in this column we’ve explored the digital transformation of different aspects of the traditional electronic systems design process. This time I’ll take a look at emerging technologies for additive manufacturing, but with the same goal: an optimized digital thread through design, verification, and manufacturing.
View Story03-24-2022
In my last column, I highlighted the critical drivers for model-based engineering. I explored the decomposition of system components from the initial requirements (the left side of the V diagram), emphasizing the advantages of maintaining a digital thread during this architectural breakdown across multiple domains. In an earlier column, I addressed the role of the digital prototype in a digital transformation. I’d like to draw those two themes together and talk about the right side of the V (integration and verification).
View Story02-24-2022
Companies at the forefront of electronic systems engineering understand this basic tenet of risk analysis. They must face the many challenges of rapidly developing markets and futuristic products. Reaping the rewards of these new opportunities and innovations requires more complex products, processes, and, often, larger more complex organizations. Technology has not only increased the complexity of individual domains, but also the number of domains. And these complexities introduce a lot more risk of failures.
View Story01-25-2022
Without a seam. That’s what seamless means. There is no evidence of the transition from one material to another, or in the case of processes, from one process to another. The transition happens smoothly, effortlessly. That is the goal of everyone in the PCB ecosystem — designers, fabricators, and contract manufacturers alike. Every designer wishes they could send a data package out to their suppliers and never have to worry about whether it will be built correctly or be bothered with answering technical queries. Likewise, bare board fabricators and contract manufacturers wish all their customers would send them complete, clean, unambiguous, non-contradicting data so they can get on with their value-added work without asking for missing information or seeking clarification.
View Story12-09-2021
The promise of the digital transformation of the electronics design process is “zero-spin”: going directly from design into volume production. This requires that every existing check performed on a physical prototype has a digital equivalent — or better yet, constraints synthesized from requirements that ensure correct-by-design. The reality today is that confidence in digital verification isn’t high enough for anyone to bet the farm on zero-spin — most consider a single, fully tested prototype pass as the holy grail.
View Story11-18-2021
Last month’s column identified the significant challenges today’s electronic systems engineering teams face, and how a digital transformation of the entire design and manufacturing flow promises to resolve them by confronting product, process, and organizational complexities. One of the areas where we see opportunities for improvement is in the reuse of critical IP as part of a team’s data management strategy: whereas the data is already digital, it’s not always leveraged efficiently from one design to the next.
View Story10-21-2021
As I speak to customers around the world, I keep hearing the same question: “How can your company help us achieve our digital transformation goals?” I’m surprised how frequently this question is asked, and also by how many of my customers are preparing by appointing executives to lead entire digital transformation teams.
View Story
